DAY 1 - "IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES, IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES"

Matthew 18:10 "Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven."

Do you know that feeling in your gut that you get when you start falling down from the top of the rollercoaster? That doesn't even begin to explain the feeling I got when my 6 month pregnant wife started having contractions on the way to the hospital on the cold Sunday morning of March 4, 2011. The ice on the window of my car parked in the driveway was the only indication I had that it was cold because my body had gone into a focused overdrive and I couldn't feel anything. We had enough time to throw some clothes on and jump in the car.

We drove down the road two minutes to the hospital in Tullahoma, TN. My wife and I had discussed in the past that we would rather drive 25 minutes down the road to Winchester rather than go to the Tullahoma hospital with a lesser reputation. We decided to bypass Tullahoma and I made the 25 minute drive to Winchester in slightly less than 15 minutes. As my wife's pain increased in intensity and frequency on the way to Winchester, I soon realized that she was having contractions and what that meant for the next few minutes.

When we got to the hospital, the nurse in the ER was ready for us and took us upstairs, and in-spite of his lazy attitude and demeanor, we made it to the registration desk. When the lady behind the desk started asking questions, the only response my wife could provide was "It feels like they are coming." At that point, the nurses put on their game faces and started working like every person in health care should. We had enough time to get my wife into a gown when her water broke. Sometimes I think that if I had driven a bit faster, or if the ER nurse had moved faster we could have stopped it, but it is in the past and all I can do is thank God for taking care of us.

The next few minutes were a blur and I can't recall the exact order and number of events. I remember running down the hall for help, returning to the room to see the aft end of my new baby girl and running to my wife's side to start praying. I think every nurse in the building was in our room and the on-call pediatrician made it in time to deliver my little boy. From the time her water broke until the time I was a new father of two was approximately 10 minutes, but it seemed like 10 hours. As the nurses worked to keep our 25 week babies alive, I stayed by my wife and prayed. We could hear their little wimpers and the nurses told us they were ok.

The next few hours the babies were moved to the nursery where the transport team from the Erlanger Children's Hospital were waiting to take them away to Chatanooga, TN. We got the see them and touch them before they left. About the time the transport team brought our new babies into our room, my parents arrived and I got to hug my mom and dad for their first moments as grandparents.

An hour later my in-laws arrived, followed by some of our close friends from church. I believe that you find out who your real friends are when the bad times come and I was surprised by the number and quality of friends that we have, not only our church family, but my co-workers also. This support team kept me and my wife going while we were at our wits end. As an aside, my wife and I have learned that when people find out you are pregnant with twins people do two things: 1) think of every horror story about twins and make sure you know about it and 2) tell you that they are a twin or who they know that are twins. It's fairly disturbing how people love to tell bad news, however, we also found that when your babies are tragically born pre-mature, people do the opposite and tell you of all the success stories of babies that were born pre-mature and are running around like normal today. Food for thought: just skip the horror stories in the beginning and use your words for encouragement.

Like Charles Dickens wrote in A Tale of Two Cities, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." It was the worst of times because the three people I cared most for were in pain. My wife from just having delivered twins naturally without anethesia, and my two beautiful new babies who were being kept alive only by Gods hand and the skilled medical team. However, all of those negative things are small compared to the new found love for my two new babies making this day "the best of times". And the love meter for my wife changed a little bit too.

Shortly after the Erlanger Hospital Transport team left to take our babies the hour ambulance ride to Chatanooga, my wife was discharged from the hospital. Somebody should give her an award for strongest woman ever, by the way. We went back home to pack some bags then headed off to the hospital where our babies were being cared for. My mom bought pink and blue teddy bears for my babies. I'll give them to the babies when they get a little bigger and we get farther along. On the way to the hospital, we learned that some more of those great friends from church were already in Chatanooga waiting for us. I am convinced that God led me and Amie to Rutledge Falls Baptist Church for a reason, and I am thankful for every person we have met there.

When we arrived at the hospital, we went straight to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to see our babies. We scrubbed down when we entered, and went into the room where the nurses and God's angels were carefully watching over our little ones. I don't know how the nurses do their job day-to-day. It takes special people to care for such little babies. We told our babies we loved them and after the grandparents had a chance to do the same, we left to find a hotel to stay the night. Thank God for my amazing parents who are still taking care of me and helped us find a hotel and paid for our room for the night. My Dad had to work the entire night before and drove from Nashville to Winchester to Chatanooga to be by my side. Thank God for amazing parents and for keeping them safe.

That was the end of day 1, and what a day it was. It seemed like a weeks worth of hours but was only 18 hours worth of events. My beautiful daughter Leila Kate Binkley was born at 630 am, 1lb 11.6oz and my handsome son Logan Daniel Binkley at 635 am 1lb 10.1oz on Sunday March 4. That's only three days after the anniversary of my wedding to the most amazing wife on the planet and two days after my brother's birthday. March is going to be quite a fun month in the years to come.